FRED @ Glebe Gardens, Baltimore

As the tour for their critically acclaimed fourth album, ‘Leaving My Empire’, begins to wind down, Cork favourites FRED brought their semi-acoustic show to the idyllic setting of Baltimore’s Glebe Gardens last Saturday night, August 13th. Support came from Dublin native Rhob Cunningham, and as the crowds made their way down the slopes to Glebe’s natural amphitheatre, Rhob soothed the masses with his Dylan/Bright Eyes tinged acoustic folk. Rhob’s personal demeanour and sweet songs helped settle in the audience nicely amidst the trees and threatening rain.

With dusk rapidly approaching, FRED themselves took to the stage. They slinked carefully into their set with Leaving My Empire centrepiece As You See. Bass in hand, singer Joe O’ Leary serenaded the crowd with his trademark mix of humour, grace and giddy dancing. Their set hung somewhere between a folk session and the band’s full-on pop sound making them sound a bit on edge but FRED’s ever present charm papered over the set’s uncertainty.

Similarly, the weather hung somewhere between a pleasant summer’s evening and a dreary autumn one, before eventually giving way to the latter. As this reviewer (having not brought a raincoat) made his way to the tree line to avoid the showers, more light-hearted revellers stuck it out to enjoy the show, despite Mother Nature’s wishes. Gig organisers were on hand to kit out the stage with umbrellas, and FRED soldiered valiantly on.

All of FRED’s recent hits were on show in the Glebe’s intimate setting. Songs that you could almost call classics like Skyscrapers and Good One stood up next to the new favourites of Somewhere Else and Trial By Fire. The intimacy of the gig, fear of rain and the bar the didn’t stop the crowd enjoying the set and while a die-hard group of ladies bopped along to Fears and Remedies one particular girl had a minor altercation with a lighting rig making the show that little bit darker. But FRED, always the showmen, merely shrugged it off, finishing their set with the combination of the hit Running and a kumbaya-esque version of Prince’s I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man.

It was definitely one of those special evenings and the band themselves knew it. As they approached the end of their set, front man Joe attempted to make the inevitable plug of the band’s most recent CD. But as he laughed, he admitted that it was “not that type of gig”. No, it definitely was not.

Published on Drop-D.ie - 22nd August, 2011